Passionate about Derby and Derbyshire. This blog will mainly feature things relating to my home city such as updates to my websites, My latest videos around Derby and Derbyshire. Reviews of software technology and random stuff. Something of interest to everyone (hopefully)

Welcome to my blog, Whats this about then?

This is a place where I will be posting all sorts of things not just things relating to Derby and Derbyshire. On here you will find details of any videos I’ve made of things in Derby and also Time-lapse, stop motion animation, Tutorials etc. If I find some useful software for PC or iPhone then I will feature it here.I’m sure that there will be something of interest to someone on my many posts.Please leave comments on any posts if you like them.Don’t forget if you are new to my blog and would like to read through the previous posts then see the Blog Archive section on the left side of this page.Also there is a Search box at the top left of the page if you are looking for something but cant remember where it was. I am a trustee member of "Friends of Friar Gate bridge", aiming to get this bridge restored.

A problem that is often asked is "how can I swap the Left and Right audio channels"
Some older soundcards used to have a tick box which said "Swap LR" but not seen that for a long time.

I have the easy solution to your problem here, you need to buy the two following leads from Amazon.
These leads are adapters, The one on the left converts a 3.5mm Jack Plug into left and right audio on RCA sockets where as the lead on the right converts 3.5mm Jack Socket into left and right RCA plugs.
By connecting these two leads together you have the ability to SWAP the audio channels.

Buy these two separate items :

Once you have taken delivery of these two leads do the following :
1) Unplug your existing headphones/Speakers from your PC (thats the 3.5mm jack plug that goes into the GREEN socket on your soundcard).
2) Plug in the 3.5mm jack plug from the left lead above into that GREEN socket on your PC.
3) Now get the other lead which has the red and black RCA plugs on it and insert the RED RCA plug into the BLACK RCA socket of the other lead and insert the BLACK RCA plug into the RED RCA socket of the other lead.
4) Now plug in your headphones/Speakers plug into the 3.5mm jack socket on the adapter lead.
5) Problem solved. Left channel is now going to be routed through to the Right ear and Right channel to the left.

Hope someone finds my solution to this problem of use. if so please leave a comment or promote my solution.

My Left/Right Speaker Test video

The idea of this video is simple, it allows you to confirm that you have wired up your audio system the right way round. You
may not think its important but imagine playing a fighting game and you
hear the enemy to your right so you turn right to fire only to get shot
because they were actually on your left side !
I discovered that my L & R cables were mixed up at the back of my computer desk and have been for months.

My speaker test video :

It may help if you play this video in Full screen mode.

When Left shows on screen there should be a voice in the LEFT speaker ONLY.
If you can hear "Left channel" in the right speaker only then this means your L & R cables are swapped over.
If you can hear "Left channel" in BOTH speakers then this means you have a short circuit OR you are using a MONO sound system.

If your system IS correct then no point in watching all 4 minutes of the video.

It will then play a voice in
the left and right speakers alternating every 2 seconds from left to
right, this will play for 4 minutes giving you plenty of time to fiddle
around with cables etc.

The time-lapse clouds I have used as a background were filmed using my modified Canon Ixus 430 camera.

On my system the "line output" from the back of the PC soundcard was connected via a switchbox (A/B Input Source Switch Box TC-12 (Part #: 50-6220) that allows me to either send the sound to my Creative Labs speakers OR to my Hi-Fi.
The Red RCA female was connecting through to the white RCA Male that was on the end of this switch box in other words Right and Left audio were being swapped !

6 comments:

Hi Andy,Great idea ! How about a speaker test with different frequencies but same volume to left and right to help in speaker placement ?I am having an issue with one speaker dominating and have concluded it is due to room acoustics after swapping channels and even speakers and always hearing the same bias. A tape like I suggest could be a big help in positioning the speakers as with music you are never sure just what sound you should hear from where.Regards Alex.

Hi Alex, The video is strictly a quick test for determining left and right connectivity and it does that perfectly. I am working on creating a balance test video but just not had time to complete it yet. Sometime probably next year before thats completed.CheersAndy